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Myer website crashes during Boxing Day sale

Ruth Liew

Visitors hoping to nab a bargain on Myer's Boxing Day Sale website were left disappointed.

Myer chief Bernie Brookes has apologised to angry online customers who were stonewalled by the retailer's crashed website on the busiest shopping day of the year.

Mr Brookes, the outgoing chief of Australia's biggest department store group, said the company was ''really disappointed'' that its website suffered technical difficulties and prevented online purchases.

There will be no impact at all on our profitability or our overall sales

''We've upset quite a few of our online shoppers, and we really apologise for that. We expect to have it [the website] up in the next couple of hours, maybe earlier,'' Mr Brookes told Fairfax Media on Boxing Day.

"Most of our IT team, are working furiously to get it right": Bernie Brookes. Photo: Luis Ascui

''I understand their frustration and for that we have to apologise.''

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Myer has pumped tens of millions of dollars into improving its website and online sales functions in previous years, as a growing number of customers opt to buy online.

Despite boosting its technology, Myer has suffered problems during busy periods, including a crash in June when heavy customer traffic triggered a website failure half an hour after the start of the annual stocktaking sale.

Mr Brookes, who took part in a phone hook-up at 3.30am after the Myer website encountered technical difficulties, said the latest problem had nothing to do with capacity, or the ability of the website to handle heavy customer traffic. Rather, it had to do with an application ''not talking'' to the server and causing the web pages to time out.

''Both IBM internationally and in Australia, and most of our IT team, are working furiously to get it right,'' Mr Brookes said. ''There's 27 days of stocktake sale and there's $175 million worth of stock, so we don't expect our customers to miss out. Of course it doesn't excuse the fact that there's a software error.''

And, while some shareholders might worry about the latest crash and its impact on company revenue, Mr Brookes said online sales made up less than 1 per cent of the retailer's business.

''There will be no impact at all on our profitability or our overall sales,'' he said.

A Myer spokeswoman said on Thursday that the company had experienced ''record volume'' in the number of customers who visited the website before it crashed.

Myer had 67 stores throughout Australia that opened on Boxing Day. The company opened its Melbourne and Sydney stores at 5am on Thursday, while others opened at 7am.

The shopping rush comes after figures from the Australian Retailers Association and Roy Morgan Research indicated that shoppers would have spent $42.1 billion in pre-Christmas sales this year.

Australians forked out about $2.9 billion for pre-Christmas shopping in department stores, compared with $2.89 billion last year.

Myer has been pushing its ''omni-channel'' sales strategy that includes boosting online sales.

Mr Brookes said at the group's full-year results in September that the company had changed ''processes and systems to improve productivity, leveraging our IT investments''.

''We are responding to the ways our customers now shop with us through the execution of our omni-channel strategy and revitalising our store environments,'' Mr Brookes said.

The store was expected to have almost double the sale items on its website compared to last year.

Myer was not the only major retailer to start its traditional Boxing Day sales early online.

David Jones’s online sale began at 6pm on Christmas Eve, the first time it had launched it so early.

JB Hi-Fi's ''End of Year Madness'' sale began on Christmas Eve, while Bing Lee's online sale began on Christmas Day.

Meanwhile, in the bricks-and-mortar retail space, Christmas feasts had barely digested when the nation's keenest shoppers headed for the shops.

Retail giants David Jones and Myer opened the doors of their flagship Sydney stores to queues of people at 5am.

Shoppers are expected to spend $1.9 billion across the nation on one of the biggest trading days of the year, which would be a 5.5 per cent boost from last year.

David Jones predicted it would sell over a million towels, more than 150,000 Lego sets and 55,000 women’s dresses.

The chief executive of the Australian Retailers Association, Russell Zimmerman, said he expected crowds to peak between midday and 3pm and said early signs suggested it would be a strong year for sales.

93 comments

Not only Myer experiencing problems. The Good Guys' web-site (Boxing Day sale) is as slow as a wet weekend, taking five or more minutes to load any page. Doing product comparisons is a nightmare.

Commenter

Slow as a Wet Weekend

Date and time

December 26, 2013, 10:30AM

Myer this happens every year. If you can't get it right then don't bother. Seriously websites shouldn't crash like this today. Other companies get extra servers and prepares for this. Imagine the money you could have had if your servers were all running? Didn't get ready in time eh?

Commenter

The Other Guy1

Date and time

December 26, 2013, 12:48PM

Whats wrong with enjoying a relaxed holiday with your family as opposed to mindless materialism? Maybe there is a hidden message in the disfunctional retailer websites.

Commenter

Bang Bang

Date and time

December 26, 2013, 2:50PM

Their website was already failing last night - don't know why they are surprised - maybe a DOS attack?

Commenter

the Truth

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

December 26, 2013, 10:15PM

The worst thing is their load is lower than many other websites at peak period and they can get elastic scaling so this doesn't happen.

Commenter

trigga

Date and time

December 27, 2013, 8:56AM

Pathetic. These guys just don't get it.

Commenter

Mark Campbell

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

December 26, 2013, 11:00AM

None of them do with their slow capacity website……at least if you buy overseas their websites work. I have I purchased off any of the retail clowns in Australia? No. And not likely to with the contempt they treat their customers.

Commenter

The Visionless Quarter

Date and time

December 26, 2013, 12:50PM

These shops would do well to question the ethics of the timing of their sales. They are nothing but races to make a dollar out of desperate people who can't rest for one day from shopping.

Commenter

Saddened

Date and time

December 26, 2013, 11:05AM

Hear, Hear! What is wrong with these fools who can't even relax for a day. So desperate to make money, and so desperate to part with it, that they would even go on-line to buy and sell on Christmas Day. You don't have to be Christian to release that there is more to life than mammon. Why, you could watch the cricket, or contemplate the many persecuted or starving overseas.

Commenter

Matthew

Location

Adelaide

Date and time

December 26, 2013, 1:40PM

I've actually been looking forward to the sales as being on a fixed income, it's an opportunity to buy necessities such as sheets, towels and underwear at reduced rates. And has it occurred to some people that not everyone has family and friends to hang out with over the holidays?!!! I'm in hospital and I'm by myself so it's nice to be able to buy myself a couple of things I need as a distraction from missing out on Christmas activities. Stop being so damn judgemental.

27 Dec
To shopping fanatics, it's the equivalent of a grand final. But rather than soaking up the atmosphere at the main game, they are increasingly staying on their lounges to bag Boxing Day bargains.